1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnetic-to-electrical transducers, and more particularly to magnetic-to-electrical transducers suitable for use as magnetic pickups for musical instruments having vibrating strings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic pickups for musical instruments (for example, electric guitars, electric basses) are conventional. A conventional magnetic pickup includes a permanent magnet (such as an AlNiCo magnet) wrapped with a coil of a few thousand turns of fine enameled copper wire. The instrument pickup can be mounted on the body of the instrument, the bridge, the neck and/or the pickguard. The vibration of the nearby soft-magnetic strings modulates the magnetic flux linking the coil, thereby inducing an alternating current through the coil of wire around the magnet. This electrical signal is then carried to other components, such as an amplifier, a speaker, recording equipment or the like. The operation of the pickup can be described using the concept of a magnetic circuit, in which the motion of the string varies the magnetic reluctance in the circuit created by the permanent magnet.
A printed circuit boards (“PCBs”) is conventional. A PCB is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways. Tracks, or signal traces, etched from conductive sheets (for example, copper sheets) are laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. PCBs are also sometimes referred to as printed wiring board (“PWB”) or etched wiring board. A PCB formed with electronic components is sometimes referred to as a printed circuit assembly (“PCA”), a printed circuit board assembly (“PCBA”), or even sometimes simply as a printed circuit board (“PCB”).
Printed circuit board style conductor coils (“PCB coils”) are conventional. PCB coils are conductive coils formed as tracks, or signal traces, on a printed circuit board. For example, US patent application 2004/0044382 (“Ibrahim”) discloses an auditory prosthesis that uses a PCB coil as a transmission coil.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,601,908 (“Ambrosino”) discloses a musical instrument including an active pickup transducer, a passive pickup transducer and a switch for allowing a user to select between the active pickup transducer and the passive pickup transducer. The transducers are disclosed to be conventional wire coil type transducers or piezoelectric transducers. As is widely conventional, the active transducer includes signal amplification of the transduced electrical signal, while the passive transducer does not. the switch is disclosed to be mounted on a printed circuit board (“PCB”).
The following published documents may also include helpful background information: (i) US patent application 2009/0085706 (“Baarman”).
Description Of the Related Art Section Disclaimer: To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, these discussions should not be taken as an admission that the discussed publications (for example, published patents) are prior art for patent law purposes. For example, some or all of the discussed publications may not be sufficiently early in time, may not reflect subject matter developed early enough in time and/or may not be sufficiently enabling so as to amount to prior art for patent law purposes. To the extent that specific publications are discussed above in this Description of the Related Art Section, they are all hereby incorporated by reference into this document in their respective entirety(ies).